The invention relates to an engineering system on the one hand and an automation system on the other, each equipped with a software component, which is hereinafter referred to as a production module.
Today, in production technology, for example, an increasing amount of data is acquired in the course of production for a wide variety of reasons, e.g., logistics, quality assurance, statistics or for subsequent production steps. These data either relate to the product itself or are relevant for the operator or service personnel or for the subsequent production steps to control the corresponding production machines. To handle the data volume, data processing hardware, in particular standard PCs, are frequently used in addition to the automation hardware, which controls the individual production steps. This data processing hardware is used only to collect and transport and, in some cases, display the data. The data processing is solved directly and variously using the standard tools of the corresponding operating systems, communication media and protocols, databases, etc. with standards developed in house. This is inconsistent with the goal of standardization in the automation of technical processes. In addition, individualized solutions that can be created and maintained only by trained personnel are expensive to procure and maintain.